A solid catalyst that includes a transition metal catalyst component (e.g., titanium) and a main group metal catalyst component (e.g., aluminum) has been widely used when polymerizing an olefin.
A supported olefin polymerization catalyst using a magnesium compound as a support exhibits remarkably improved polymerization activity. A polymer that exhibits high stereoregularity can also be produced using an α-olefin having 3 or more carbon atoms by adding an electron donor such as an ester compound to the catalyst.
Such a supported catalyst ensures an improvement in activity that makes it unnecessary to remove a catalyst residue (e.g., chlorine and titanium) from the polymer (deashing), an improvement in yield of a stereoregular polymer, and an improvement in durability of the catalyst activity during polymerization. However, when polymerizing an olefin using a polymerization catalyst that includes such a highly active catalyst component and organoaluminum compound and an electron donor compound (e.g., silicon compound), a large amount of fine powder may be produced, and the particle size distribution may become broad due to a fine powder of the solid catalyst component and particulate fracture due to heat of reaction during polymerization. If the amount of fine powder increases, the production process may be hindered (e.g., a uniform reaction may not occur, or a pipe may be clogged when transferring the polymer). If the particle size distribution becomes broad, the polymer molding process may be adversely affected. Therefore, development of a catalyst that can produce a polymer having a uniform particle size and a narrow particle size distribution while suppressing production of a fine powder has been desired.
As a means for solving the problems relating to the fluidity and the particle size distribution of the polymer, and simplifying the production process, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-6-157659) discloses an olefin polymerization catalyst that includes a solid catalyst component obtained by adding a suspension of spherical dialkoxymagnesium, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and a phthalic diester to a mixed solution of an aromatic hydrocarbon and titanium tetrachloride, reacting the mixture, reacting the resulting product with titanium tetrachloride, and washing the resulting product.
Patent Document 2 (JP-A-6-287225) discloses a solid catalyst component for olefin polymerization obtained by adding a suspension of spherical dialkoxymagnesium, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and a phthalic diester to a mixed solution of an aromatic hydrocarbon and titanium tetrachloride, reacting the mixture, washing the reaction product with an aromatic hydrocarbon, reacting the product with titanium tetrachloride, washing the resulting product to obtain a solid component, drying the solid component, and removing a fine powder.
The above technology reduces the amount of fine powder by removing a fine powder of the solid catalyst component. However, the above technology cannot control production of a fine powder caused by particulate fracture due to heat of reaction during polymerization.    (Patent Document 1) JP-A-6-157659    (Patent Document 2) JP-A-6-287225
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a solid catalyst component for olefin polymerization that can produce a polymer having high stereoregularity and a narrow particle size distribution in high yield while suppressing production of a fine powder, a method of producing the same, a catalyst, and a method of producing an olefin polymer.